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Drift-Net Fishing ISTORICAL NOTES

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Drift-Net Fishing ISTORICAL NOTES CHAPTER VII Drift-net Fishing ISTORICAL NOTES. We do not know when H the drift-net was first invented or when it was first used for catching herring, mackerel, or pilchard. It has certainly been in existence for hundreds of HERRING-DRIFTERS AT LERWICK years, although it is probably not so old as the seine­ or casting-net. Neither can we give the date of the earliest herring fishery, but this probably goes back to between three to five thousand years before Christ. Great Yarmouth seems to have been resorted to by fishermen during the herring season as early as the sixth century. There was herring-fishing off the coast of Flanders in the time of Charlemagne. There is no reason to suppose that the fishermen of this remote period used any other method than that of !68 Drift-net Fishing drift-nets. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that drift-nets have been employed ever since that far-off age when herrings were first captured in the open sea. For they are the only sort of nets by which herring, pilchard, and mackerel (i.e., 'pelagic' fish, swimming on the surface of the water at a certain distance from the land) can be caught in any great num­ bers. I have no space in which to relate in detail the story of the drift-net fisheries in Northern Europe ; it would require a volume in itself. In this chapter I can do no more than give a brief description of SHAKING DRIFT-NETS AT SCARBOROUGH the British drift-net fishery as it is carried on to-day, and some account of the lives of the drifter fishermen themselves. DESCRIPTION OF DRIFT-NETS. Drift-nets are SO called from the manner in which they are worked. They are neither fixed, towed, nor hauled within any definite limits of water, but cast or ' shot ' at any dis­ tance from the land wherever there may be signs of fish and wherever the tide may happen to take them. They are allowed to drift until it is thought desirable to haul them in again. \Vhen at work they extend in a long si.1gle line. Their upper edge is supported at or near the surface by means of floats. The nets themselves hang perpendicularly in the water. They form, as it 169 Fishermen and Fishing Tf/ays were, a perforated wall or barrier between two or three miles long, hanging two fathoms below the surface. To the corner of each net are attached round, balloon­ shaped canvas buoys, not unlike large footballs. These serve to mark the position of the nets, and to relieve NET BEING SHOT AND IN FINAL POSITION excess of weight if there is much herring or mackerel in the nets. The shoals of fish try to pass through this barrier. They force their heads into the meshes, the size of which depends on whether herring, pilchards, or mackerel are expected to be caught.1 The mesh must be large enough to permit the head and gills to enter, but too small to allow the thicker part of the fish to go through. METHOD OF FISHING. As a general rule drift-net 1 Herring mesh averages 30-36 per yard, pilchard mesh 36 per yard, mackerel mesh 25-29 per yard. Drift-net Fishing fishing is carried on only at night, the best time being just after sunset or just before dawn. It seems that the fish are somehow influenced by the change of light, and more inclined to move then than in broad daylight or absolute darkness. Although details vary according to locality, the following description of the method of ' shooting ' drift-nets will apply almost equally well to any part of the British Isles. There is not much difference in the method employed, whether the vessel be steam, motor, or sailing lugger. The ordinary time for beginning work is just about sunset. When the fishermen think they have arrived where herring or mackerel are to be found, or if there is any appearance of fish on the surface of the water, immediate preparations are made. The nets have been stowed in regular order in the hold or net-room. To prevent any danger of hitching while they are passing over the deck a ' bank board ' is placed between the hatchway and the top of the bulwark, over which they are hauled, a roller at the edge of the hatchway taking off the strain upon them as they are being drawn up from below. The warp, or 'messenger-rope,' to which the nets are attached, is run out over a roller, called a 'molgogger,' or 'jinny.' Two hands shoot the riets, one taking charge of the corks, buoy-ropes (' buff strops '), and buoys, the other looking after the netting itself. Another man attends to the ' seizings ' (strop-1;opes) of the nets as they come up on deck and passes them forward to the mate, who makes them fast to the warp as it runs out over the molgogger. When all the fleet of nets has been paid out fifteen or twenty fathoms more warp is let go as a ' swing-rope.' The vessel is then brought round head to wind. A mizzen is set to keep the drifter in this 171 Fishermen and Fishing Ways position, and the foremast is lowered. Two white lights are placed to show that the vessel is fishing, the lower of the two indicating the actual direction of the nets. The watch is set, and the vessel drifts with the tide. In bad weather more swing-rope is required so that the boat may not have too great a drag on the nets. SHOOTING DRIFT-NETS While the nets are in the water the warp is occasion­ ally hauled in as far as the first net to see if fish are about. Sometimes great damage is done to the nets and to the herring by dogfish. After three or four hours the process of hauling begins. The warp, or 'bush-rope,' is led through a block fixed on the bulwarks, near the capstan, and down into the rope-room, where a boy coils it down so as to be ready for running out when it is again wanted. One man, the 'cast off,' disconnects the nets from the warp, two others take charge of the buoys and seizings, and four more stand in the hold and shake out the fish from 172 Drift-net Fishing the nets. The buoys are stowed away in the wings of the hold. Should there be a good catch the process of hauling may take several hours. As soon as the last of the nets has been brought on board the vessel proceeds back to port at full speed so as to reach the market as early as possible. The men draw all the nets from the HAULIN G NETS AT DAWN hold, shake out any fish that may still be entangled in them, and pile the nets on either side of the deck. On the Cornish drifters, which are much smaller and narrower than the Scottish, the nets are piled up on the forward part of the deck. On arriving in port a sample of herring or mackerel is taken up at once to the fish-market by two of the crew, unless the drifter should be working for some particular curing-firm, in which case the fish is landed at once close to the gutting-sheds. Drift-nets need constant attention and frequent mending. Every Saturday the Scottish fishermen' bark ' 1 73 Fishermen and Fishing Ways their nets by immersing them for two or three minutes in a strong solution of tannin and boiling water. They are afterward taken ashore and laid out to dry until Monday morning. Drift-net fishing is also carried on in much smaller LAN DING A SAMPLE OF HERRIN G vessels off the south coast of England, especially in Devon and Cornwall, chiefly during the winter months, when shoals of herring and mackerel make their appear­ ance in the Channel. The vessels employed by the inshore fishermen are very small when .compared with those on the east coast-in fact, many of them carry no more than two hands. They put to sea an hour or so before sunset and return toward dawn. Eight to fourteen nets are carried for mackerel, six to ten for herring. They are usually forty fathoms in length along 174 Drift-net Fishing the head-rope and five fathoms deep. In Devonshire the ropes that connect the buoys, here made of cork, not leather, as in the North Sea steam- and motor­ drifters, are called 'lanyards.' The nets are shot in much the same way, allowance being made for the small size of the boats as compared with those already described. Here are a few personal impressions by Stephen Reynolds 1 of a night's drift-net fishing for herring off Sidmouth: We were to sea. The water, which barely gurgled beneath the drifter, was rushing up on the beaches under the cliffs with a myriad-sounding rattle. The little craft our kingdom was-twenty-eight feet long by eight in the beam -and a pretty pickle of a kingdom ! Mixed up together in the stern were a couple of spare cork buoys, rope, sacks of ballast and Tony. Midships were the piled-up nets and buoys. For'ard were more ballast bags and rope ends, some cordage, old clothes, sacks, paper bags of supper, four bottles of cold tea, two of paraffin oil, and one of water, the riding lamp and a very old fish box, half full of pebbles for cooking on.
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